Lexus may follow in the path of Tesla in setting up its own charging network to entice buyers in its home market to choose its electric vehicles. The automaker’s CEO, Takashi Watanabe, told reporters that if it can win over Japanese customers, it should be able to win over customers anywhere.
Lexus’s parent company, Toyota, has been slow to adopt electric vehicles, in part because Japanese consumers are reticent to give up their internal combustion engines. Electric vehicle penetration lags behind other similar markets, in part because of a lack of charging infrastructure, Watanabe believes.
“We’re asking ourselves, how can we make the experience better?” he said, per Bloomberg. “How can we utilize and work closely with our Japanese dealer network to test bed different kinds of services and new kinds of experiences to make the whole BEV experience better?”
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The executive pointed out that charging stations remain hard to come by in Japan, so any attempts to introduce new ports would likely be positive. That’s why the company is “investigating and moving right now with a program for Lexus-specific charging stations.”
Watanabe believes that Japan can be a test bed for ideas that it might roll out into other markets. If it can win over Japanese customers, it should be able to win over consumers in other parts of the world, where adoption rates are better.
Lexus is hardly the first automaker to propose creating its own charging network. Tesla’s Supercharger network is the industry leader in America, and has been such a success that most other manufacturers are switching to its plug type in order to take advantage of it.
It’s not just Tesla, though. Other premium brands are also considering creating their own bespoke charging stations. That includes brands like Mercedes, Audi, and Porsche, who believe that they can provide drivers with a luxurious, brand-focused experience, that will make the idea of waiting for their car to charge more palatable.
